The next room they found was a storeroom with its door smashed, full of shadowy racks and containers. Nothing leaped out at the group as they searched.

Hastro waved Lisette back; she was holding the torch in her good hand. "That's the symbol for 'Poison', isn't it?"

Ruyo looked where he was pointing; an abstract mark suggested choking. "Yeah, good catch. Keep the fire away and don't open anything unless you're sure what it is."

The alchemical goop caking part of the floor had long ago done whatever dangerous thing it was going to do, unless someone now touched or ignited it. Some of the containers were empty or their contents had dried to a brown crust. Ruyo took what notes she could on the few readable labels.

Probably the biggest find here was another few written numbers to compare with countable things. Elly said, "What's the big metal tube up there?"

It connected to the wall and a small pipe connected it to a metal cabinet. Ruyo said, "Other ruins had tubes for ventilation. And I bet the box controls it somehow. I want to try opening that."

"There's a lock. Can I try it?"

From outside, Lisette said, "Since when can you break locks?"

"Never, but I want to try." She pushed past Ruyo and tried fiddling with the simple padlock.

"Hey, don't open it!" Ruyo said.

"I won't." She took out a nail from her pack and poked the inside. To her own surprise some bit of metal snapped, releasing the clasp. "Whoo!"

Ruyo said, "Okay, back off and let me poke this with a spear." Unstated was that she was the most likely to survive an explosion. Even so, she held a shield in one hand while carefully pulling the box open at a distance.

When nothing exploded, Ruyo stepped closer to look, and her eyes widened. The old control box had several switches and fairly clear markings inside. "I recognize a few of these from the Wellspring. These are related to mana."

Hastro asked, "It controls magic?"

"I'm not sure. But it flowed here...?"

Khulis said, "Think about the guys that used this place back in the day. Who was in here?"

Ruyo said, "If it's alchemical storage and controls, then the room was for someone who worked here and was trusted."

"You see any cool desks and paintings?"

"No, why?"

Lisette laughed. "I get it. This was for the cleaning staff! Or repairmen. So people who weren't in charge had access to some kind of magic controls. It wasn't secret special power."

Ruyo said, "Nusina told me that in the old days, basic magic was something almost anyone could do. Maybe all the buildings were enchanted too."

"Can we try pushing a few switches?" asked Elly.

"No," said everyone else.

Around a corner they found a small downward stairway to a collapsed doorway blocked by rubble. There was a possible way to crawl through into a metal-walled room. Ruyo peered at the large symbol on the nearby wall and said, "Nope, back up! Now!"

They all retreated upstairs. "What?" asked Hastro.

Ruyo showed him a page from the old notes, with an icon meaning "Health Hazard".

"What kind of hazard?"

"Don't know, don't want to find out without more power." Worriedly she tried to examine herself magically, then the others. She doubted she could identify diseases or subtle poisons yet. They were fine... probably. They'd only been in sight of that place for a moment. She shuddered and backed off more. "That's a dead end for now. And probably a good stopping place."

Lisette said, "Could we at least look the other way down that intersection with the skeletons?"

They retreated, then went on a little farther past the bones. "Why aren't there more of these?" Khulis asked. "If there was some disaster, you'd think the place would be packed."

#

As they were about to round a corner, Lisette said, "Noise up ahead." Everyone paused. "Something clicking, every few seconds."

Nobody else noticed, but Ruyo sent a waterball ahead to see if anything reacted. Nothing. She peeked and saw a large double glass door marked by words and a green symbol. "Sealed room. Back off. Hand me the notes again."

The words were unfamiliar and so was the icon, but it looked like a tree. Not any known "death awaits" mark. "We're good for now."

The party looked into another dark room through the doors. The waterball and torch just showed them their own reflections and a big space beyond.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"After my sewer trip and the storeroom, I'm starting to worry about explosive gas," Ruyo said. "Let's switch to just magic light from here on. Can everyone else cast that yet?"

Lisette had figured it out, and the others tried out the spellcraft they'd barely been taught. After some coaxing and coaching between the four followers, all of them managed to produce floating lights of varying quality and slightly different shades. "Nice," Ruyo said. "You've all improved. Anyone want to try the basic elemental spell while we're here?"

Elly said, "We need to head back," and nodded toward her sister.

"I'll live. I want to see what's in there! And yes, show me the trick again."

As bad as Ruyo felt about getting Lisette hurt, Ruyo now wanted to humor her request. While standing just out of sight from the glass doors, she explained the elemental spell again, mostly the practical side of mentally shaping mana. Lisette concentrated through the pain, and a swirl of water above her hand changed from simple liquid into an animate ball that could float at her command. "It... it feels like more than just shaping the water."

Elly said, "All right, but let's get going."

Back at the door, Ruyo touched the glass and willed it to open. There was no sense of it reacting to her at all, though. "My guess is it's less important than the outer metal door, so I have less authority over it."

Khulis said, "On the other hand you could just smash it. Hammer, please?"

Elly took a quick look at the lock but blinked. "It just has a slot for a flat key. No idea how it works."

Khulis borrowed Ruyo's hammer and hung a piece of cloth along the door with one hand before smashing the glass. It cracked with one blow and shards crashed out on the third. Soon he'd worked his way through breaking a hole large enough to crawl through.

Elly said, "How'd you learn to do that?"

"Never you mind. Who's in first, ma'am?"

The noise Lisette had heard was more obvious now. Repeated clicking from beyond the hole. A large, open room with a dirt floor and a platform in the middle beckoned.

"Should be me," said Ruyo. She helped clean out some jagged shards and eased herself through.

She raised her light overhead. "A long-dead garden. Round room with stone paths running through it," she said. "And a circle of marble benches."

More glass shattered behind her, making her wince. "Making space," said Khulis.

Ruyo looked around for signs of danger but found none. Only another glass door, and a distant door overgrown with dead vines, and a high ceiling with one glassy upper wall. The pillar in the center was a platform wide enough for several people to stand comfortably on, with a low railing and three stairs. "There's a machine clicking in the middle."

The others climbed in unbidden and looked around, adding their own light to the room. It felt more natural in here with more light sources and color shades, though with multiple shadows for everyone.

Hastro dutifully paced along the paths and poked at the dirt with his spear. "Crops? They're too brown and dry to tell."

"How would you grow crops underground?" asked Khulis.

They all looked up. Long, now-dark tubes lined the ceiling.

"Somebody poke the machine," Ruyo said. Khulis did it gently with a spear and nothing happened.

Ruyo climbed the stairs and crouched. The device didn't match the style of the marble and glass fittings of the room; it was a green-brown metal box, scuffed up, with a black plate slowly rotating atop it. A metal arm hung over the disc and had apparently scratched grooves into it with a worn-down needle at the end. Every so often it clicked.

"Any ideas?" she asked.

Khulis said, "The arm jiggled when I poked the box."

Ruyo used her hammer to carefully reach out to the arm, lifting it into another position.

A slow, moaning noise came from the device. Ruyo cursed and hopped back, falling off the platform backwards. Hastro caught her, saying, "Whoa, careful!"

Ruyo shivered, blushed, and let him set her back on her feet. "Thanks. I need to start doing that splashy dodge move if I fall off things."

Elly said, "It's not hurting anybody."

Lisette asked, "Why is it still working?"

Ruyo frowned in thought. "Normally a machine would run on lightning power. Maybe this is a mana-powered model." She looked around. "Which would mean there's enough mana around here to passively power other machines. Like more of that killer pillar."

Everybody looked suspiciously at the central platform. But its material was just stone and it looked firmly rooted.

"Can I make it stop?" Elly said over the ongoing growling it made. Ruyo nodded, and she climbed the stairs and set the arm back to its old spot. Just clicking, now.

Khulis was interested in the upper windows. "Can we get in there?"

It was only a second-floor overlook, not far up, but the metal wall was too smooth to climb. "I could try some ice platforms."

The others made suggestions, and Khulis said, "We should grab a ceiling light if we can, too."

Ruyo set about creating water and freezing it into place as some fairly sturdy stairs, then made some attempts at higher platforms. Everyone chipped in to add more bulk and structure to the improvised ladder/stairs/ramp.

Khulis insisted on going first so he could smash more glass. The others went partway up to steady his legs and prepare to catch him. Ruyo made a layer of water hover in midair where he might fall into it and slow down.

Not to fear, though. Khulis peered through the foggy glass and began smashing through. "I see desks, chairs, cabinets."

Though they had to dodge some falling glass, soon there was a way in. Khulis wriggled through and lowered a rope to help Ruyo. She made it up through the window, but got a cut on her arm. The man apologized but she gritted her teeth and said, "I'm fine. It's healing practice." She turned her attention to healing for a minute.

Khulis cleaned out the hole more carefully and brought Elly in. She looked around eagerly, opening drawers and grumbling when most were empty or were full of dust and rust. Then there was a squat stone statue up to her shoulders, coming to life to -- oh hell.

It lurched forward with human-like fists of stone and punched Elly in the gut, knocking her over a cabinet. Ruyo looked up from trying to study her own small wound, shouted, and began casting.

Khulis rushed the statue, hammer in both hands, and whalloped it in the head. A good half of the featureless rocky face flew off in fragments, and the rest of the statue wobbled. He followed up with a kick that made him stagger back, clutching his leg, but the creature's entire body slowly cracked and then crumbled like an eroding mountain.

Ruyo went over to Elly. The girl gasped for breath but waved in reassurance, choking out "Ow". Ruyo held onto her.

"I got it!" said Khulis, beaming. He shook his leg and rubbed it.

Ruyo said, "That was impressive."

Elly slowly stood, coughing. Ruyo made Khulis look away so they could check her stomach: bruised but nothing broken.

"What's going on in there?" called Hastro from below.

Khulis grinned down at him. "Nothing I couldn't handle."

Ruyo said, "Time to go before anyone gets killed."

Elly said, "There's... there's gotta be... stuff in here." She hobbled around, ransacking containers.

Two black rods sat on the desks. Each was connected by a cord to a slot in the floor. Ruyo unplugged one. "So these are the power cables you mentioned. Powering whatever these are."

Elly found something. One cabinet, after some yanking and banging, opened to reveal a rack of black platters like the one on the noise-maker, and a packet of needles. She looked excitedly back at Ruyo and said, "Do you realize what this is?"